


curtain

by Kamiizumi



Category: EXO (Band), Red Velvet (K-pop Band)
Genre: Angst, F/M, random fanfic ideas at night strikes again, surene, wip but im putting it here bc i have no idea how to make this not a Completed Work
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-25
Updated: 2017-09-25
Packaged: 2019-01-05 07:13:55
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,819
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12185382
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kamiizumi/pseuds/Kamiizumi
Summary: Kim Junmyeon. At one point in her life, she was the sun, and he, the moon. They were the textbook definition of loving, and to be loved. And even if they were young and free, their love still bore fruit: the stars. All it took was one phone call to tell him the outcome of their tryst. But then she sat there in the hospital, with the sky outside her window about as gray as the curtains around her bed, waiting. Waiting. But he never came. And she never saw him ever again.





	curtain

               It wasn’t like Joohyun despised being lonely. It took her some time, but she found that there was some satisfaction to be gleaned from being by yourself all the time. Sometimes the company was stifling, like she was standing in a room with no windows and the walls were slowly advancing on her. However, if she closed her eyes, the sound of dead silence became the sound of peace. The walls would fall like chopped trees and suddenly she was in a forest by herself, with only the sound of the wind through the leaves and the chirping of the birds around her.

               Joohyun had been by herself for almost ten years now, the quintessential “me, myself, and I”. She maintained a strong relationship with no one else but her own mother, maybe acquaintances here and there, but anyone she truly considered a friend – or _more_ – left her nine years ago. Just like _he_ did.

               Things were routine for Joohyun at this point in her life. Wake up, wash her face, brush her teeth, prepare breakfast, and ruminate about what she could be doing to fill up this next chapter in her life. Today was different though.

               She stared at herself in the mirror. Her blouse would suffice, she thought to herself, as she straightened out her collar, the light gray fabric smooth against the pad of her fingers. Her gently curled hair would have to do for today as well – Joohyun was to meet her new employer today, not go on a date. (She hasn’t gone out on a date in over three years; the last guy she went out on a date with had a fascination with fried chicken and tried to make her pay for their entire meal.) Her eyes drifted over to the clock: 7:34am. She’d needed to get on the road now if she wanted to make it to the office building before eight. The wood floors of her empty apartment clacked with the sound of her heels, shortly before her door shut closed with a soft click.

               Despite her relatively lonesome existence, there was only one person aside from her mother that she still trusted. It was near the end of her college career that she met Seungwan, a chipper, bubbly girl with a penchant for singing and never running out of things to smile about. Out in public, before classes started, walking alongside Joohyun to the campus cafeteria, Seungwan was quite the chatterbox and never ceased to run out of subjects to talk about. She was the first friend Joohyun had made in quite a long time, in a new place where hopefully no one’s pasts ever caught up to them. Seungwan was all smiles and kept Joohyun’s thoughts ablaze, keeping her distracted from the memories that have haunted her since she graduated from high school.

               Seungwan was…alright.

_“Joohyun, you never smile in pictures but you’re so pretty? How come?”_

_“I just don’t have a reason to smile.”_

Seungwan understood; she never questioned. Joohyun was at least thankful that she never got fed up with her and left like the others did; she was truly thankful even if she was too shy to show it in person.

               She and Seungwan went separate ways after college even though they were in the same major, but they stayed in contact. After all, Seoul was only so big. Seungwan was more ambitious than Joohyun was, she had to admit, and therefore had many plans after college, but all Joohyun ever wanted was some peace of mind and an apartment to call her own, aside from sending money to her mother every now and then. It just so happened that Seungwan was in town and wanted to hang out; get some drinks and have a fun time, and Joohyun wasn’t at all opposed to letting loose every now and then. God knows she needed to. God didn’t tell her that she needed to keep her mouth shut as well.

               All she remembered that evening was inviting Seungwan over, with the aforementioned young woman showing up at her door with a giant bottle of soju and a dvd for _Train to Busan_ , and everything went downhill from there. Shots were taken, screams were made, and then the last thing she remembered was screeching about _him_ in excruciating detail ( _“You know what would make MY day? If he were on that train instead and they fed him to the zombies. He’s such a fucking asshole I don’t even – I DON’T EVER WANNA HNNNGH – “_ ) before making a dash for her bathroom and bruising her knees trying to vomit into her toilet. The worried look on Seungwan’s face the next morning when she awoke to her friend busily cooking breakfast in her kitchen already told Joohyun that she may have said too much that previous night.

               _“What..what was his name?”_

_Joohyun shook her head, already digging the palms of her hands into her eyes to keep them from spilling any more tears. “…No. I’m not going to say it ever again.”_

               And just like that, Seungwan didn’t ask anything else. She understood, and that’s all Joohyun ever asked for. It’s not like everyone in her hometown already knew her story. One more person who knew wasn’t going to make her situation any better than it already has been. Someday, she’ll have the courage to tell her story again; that she cried, she screamed, she fought, and she _survived_. Without him. But as for when that day would be? Certainly not today, or anytime soon.

* * *

               “Seungwan, are you going to be waiting in front of the building? You know I get lost really easily.” Joohyun stared at the screen of her smartphone, where a pixelated Seungwan just smiled at her.

               “Don’t you worry; I’m already on the way there. But I can’t promise that I’ll be outside for long! This rain is going to get me soaked!”

               Joohyun pursed her lips and looked out past the balcony in front of her apartment. The rain came down pelting, water slapping on the asphalt like tiny little men falling to their deaths. Spring was always going to be bringing showers, but on her first day of work? This could not have been more unfortunate.

               She rolled her eyes and huffed. “Okay, okay, fine. I won’t make you wait outside. I’m sure I’ll find the building somehow. I’ll talk to you later.”

               “See ya!”

               She watched as the brunette on the screen grinned at her again and waved hurriedly, before the connection cut through and she was back to her home screen. Joohyun sighed and pulled up her compact umbrella, shaking it open and letting the pink floral-on-black fabric expand in front of her before making her way out.

               It was only going to be a brief train ride downtown, but the real challenge was maneuvering the streets, especially in this weather.

               Seungwan was already working at the same job before she was, and was always keen on suggesting she apply for a job there since Joohyun was still balancing between being a part-timer at her local minimart as well as babysitting. However, her stubborn self never let anybody else do her any favors, and she was definitely adamant about making her own decisions, getting a job included. Despite Joohyun’s hardiness, it was fruitless to keep balancing part-time jobs and thinking that she could support herself and her own mother, and eventually relented to letting Seungwan organize a job interview at her place. All that she had to go off of was that the job was “high-paying with lots of a benefits” and that “it was made for someone with her talents”. Joohyun wasn’t a bragger, but she’d be damned if someone as honest and earnest as Seungwan would fib about as good a job as whatever she was describing.

               To satisfy her own stubbornness, Joohyun never even bothered researching any further about the company that Seungwan worked for, aside from its name and what they made. It was a telecommunications company, and that already screamed rich and important to her. The job was as good as her’s (provided she gave a good interview).

               And she did. Joohyun regretted letting her mouth drop open when Seungwan led her into the office that day, just a single floor in a high-rise building in the center of metropolitan Seoul. The interview didn’t take that long, but Seungwan forgot to mention that she was interviewing to be the _CEO’s_ personal assistant. And while it was difficult to argue with her about why she dropped that tidbit, Joohyun was relieved to know she had gotten the job after all. (Apparently, the CEO was having some issues handling his workload recently and had finally relented to having a hiring for a personal assistant.)

               She wasn’t going to let this minor victory get to her head. It was just a job, after all. A pretty damn good one, but Joohyun wasn’t one to look a gift horse in the mouth.

               She certainly didn’t know what to expect when she walked back inside that office building, with the tinted glass windows overlooking the spacious lobby and its derelict, polished hardwood walls, shiny marble floors, and pristine red and white sofas. The room, despite being as large as it was, hummed with the natural energy of a downtown skyrise. Other people in business attire much like her were already traveling across the floor, presumably to their stations in the building. An elderly but endearing looking security guard gave her a smile and tipped his hat politely. She simply smiled. Joohyun felt a little bad stepping into the lobby like she did, her heels tracking a bit of rainwater on the floor and letting droplets fly all over the place when she shook her umbrella dry on the welcome mat. A receptionist at the desk far in front of the main entrance looked absolutely unfazed, typing away idly into her keyboard. Just like Joohyun thought, not a sign of Seungwan anywhere either. Perhaps it’d be better for her to find her way through to the main office by herself.

               Joohyun approached the front desk, shining black marble looking like it had encased the receptionist in the fanciest coffin ever made, and tapped her knuckle on the surface.

               “Excuse me? I’m Bae Joohyun, the new hire? I’d like to ask where the main office floor is.”

               “17th floor. Mr. Kim is already waiting upstairs,” the receptionist answered without missing a beat, her eyes never leaving the stark white of her computer screen.

               “…Thank you…?” Joohyun narrowed her eyes at the woman, who still didn’t bother acknowledging her presence, before rolling her eyes and making her way to the elevators with a gaggle of other people. It wasn’t a tight squeeze, but it was snug and she was brushing shoulders with more people than she was used to on a regular basis. But at least everyone minded their own business and no one was making inane banter in there like they were some sort of social martyr. The trip to the 17th floor was going to take quite a bit of time, and so Joohyun fished her phone out of her purse and pulled up her text messages with Seungwan.

               “Are you already in the office?”

               “Ah! It’s a good thing you texted! My train is having an emergency shutdown for some reason – probably because of the rain. The good thing is that I’m _very_ close to the station, so I might be there in maybe ten, fifteen minutes?”

               “It would have been nice to get some warning…I’m already on my way to meet the CEO for the first time.”

               “Mr. Kim?”

               “Yeah.” For some reason, Joohyun could feel the uneasiness start to pool in her stomach, like she’d swallowed a whole bottle of hot sauce, glass and everything.

               “You’ll do fine! Mr. Kim is such a nice man, though he really seems like he’s at his wit’s end. I’m sure you’ll be a fine asset.”

               “That doesn’t ease the butterflies in my stomach, but thank you, Seungwan. Just get to the office safely, okay?”

               “Don’t worry about me; just practice your best first impression!”

               Joohyun let out a soft sigh at the emoji Seungwan attached to that last message before shutting her phone off and stuffing it back into her purse.

               14th…

               She wondered who Mr. Kim was. She half expected some rich, old benefactor who wore tailored suits almost entirely in shades of tan and cream.

               15th…

               Or was it going to be some gray-haired silver fox? Like Hugh Hefner if he decided to stop toying with women a fourth of his age and start working on how to make the telecommunications business more of a boon for everybody.

               16th…

               The butterflies in Joohyun’s stomach haven’t settled. Her index finger was idly circling the silver button on the strap holding her umbrella together. By now, she was the only person left standing in the elevator; most of everyone else had gotten off three, four floors below her.

               17th.

               The brushed metal doors slid open with a soft ring, into a smaller lobby that looked much like the one on the ground floor. Taking a deep breath (and before the doors could close on her), Joohyun took that much needed first step out, hearing her heels clack against the marble floor with an almost satisfying echo. It seemed she might have been the only person in that lobby at that moment.

               “Ah! You must be Ms. Bae!” Another voice alerted Joohyun, who noticed a woman at the end of the hallway peeking her head out from around the corner, her ponytail swinging behind her as she smiled at Joohyun.

               “J-Joohyun is fine, really.”

               “Come, come. Soojung already messaged me about you coming up the elevator.” Joohyun hiked her purse strap up her shoulder and briskly walked toward the woman, who was now standing at the far end of the hallway, her manicured hands firmly planted on her slacks-adorned hips. “I’m Kang Seulgi. I was just sent here to wait for you so I can give you the necessary files you want to be discussing with Mr. Kim when you enter his office.” Joohyun looked up at the taller woman as she gestured over to the set of double doors, frosted glass and polished wood, sitting at the far end of the hallway past the corner. Joohyun simply inhaled deeply at the intimidating sight, shortly before Seulgi held a folder in front of her and pressed it against her.

               “You’re going to need this. Now stand up straight, smile, and most importantly, good luck. If you need anything else, I’ll be on the 12th floor. My cubicle is next to Seungwan’s, I believe. You two are friends, right?”

               “Y-Yeah.”

               Seulgi nodded and grinned. “I’ll be going then. Best not keep Mr. Kim waiting any further.”

               Without any further words, the taller woman briskly made her way past Joohyun and walked into the elevator, and Joohyun could only watch as the steel doors shut tight and the hum of the elevator whirring slowly disappeared from her hearing. It wasn’t like she could waste any more time just standing there by herself in the empty hallway with the plastic decorative ferns being her only company. One glance at her watch said that it was already a couple minutes past eight o’ clock; hopefully, Mr. Kim wasn’t a very temperamental person, or she’d lose her job before she had even gotten a chance to start it.

               With another sigh, Joohyun straightened out the collar on her blouse and smoothed out her skirt before finally steeling herself and making her way to the frosted glass doors.

* * *

               It was difficult to imagine how life would have been had everything gone down just fine. But even then, she didn’t know what _just fine_ was supposed to mean. Would _just fine_ have been before they even met, when she didn’t know she was going to make the biggest mistake of her young life with him? Or if he hadn’t walked out on her, left her hanging on a thread so thin that it might as well have been spun by a spider? No, Joohyun thought. _Just fine_ would have been her living the rest of her days in relative peace, if she never bothered to humor him, never answered his calls, never said _yes_.

               If they’d never even crossed paths all those years ago, things would be _just fine_.

               But what she hadn’t accounted for was seeing that silhouette of his, the last day she ever him, standing in front of a paneled window, with the rain running down its surface like racecars.

               If only time froze for that moment, because Joohyun desperately wanted to tell herself that “Mr. Kim” wasn’t short for _Kim Junmyeon_ , the same man who left her to fend for herself all those years; the same man who was now turning to face her because she let the door close a little haphazardly behind her.

               His face was stone for just the slightest of moments, before his eyes widened and his eyebrows furrowed. He hadn’t looked any less handsome than the day she last saw him, but that didn’t lessen any of her urge to want to shove her umbrella into one of his eyes.

               “…Bae…Bae Joohyun? N-No, it can’t be.” Junmyeon fully faced her now, with only his bureau standing in between them, but he was slowly stepping over, getting closer. “Is it – “

               Her throat was locking up and her eyes were starting to sting, but no way in hell was Joohyun about to let this man see her weak. She was already stepping backwards, hands flying behind her to reach for the door handle. Nostrils flared and gaze steeled, she shook her head at Junmyeon. “No. Don’t get close to me.”

               “No, no, Joohyun – “

               Her nerves were on fire and it felt like the walls were suddenly blazing all around her, licking at her arms and leaving searing welts on her skin. The room was going up in flames and the smoke was filling her lungs by the second, but Joohyun wasn’t going to let herself fall down here. She was going to survive, but she needed to get out first. The frosted glass door swung open as far as she could push it, and she stomped her way out of that office, her heels clacking so hard on the marble that it could have cracked and she wouldn’t have given a damn.

               This was a mistake, this was a mistake, _this was a mistake_ , Joohyun thought, her mind racing a mile a minute. She needed to leave, she needed to get out, she didn’t _belong_ here, in this place. She swallowed thickly and breathed, an exasperated yelp escaping her throat, and suddenly her cheeks were hot and wet, and his hand was enclosing around her wrist and –

               “Joohyun – “

               “ ** _Don’t_ touch me…!** ”

               The brunette whipped her arm away, and Junmyeon stopped in his tracks, putting his hands up in defense. He looked at her wistfully with his lips parted as if he wanted to continue saying something, but he quickly closed them. Joohyun’s composure was already fractured at this point, and the telltale tracks of tears across her cheeks combined with the seething expression on her face was enough to show him that it was not his privilege to address her, let alone touch her.

               “…You don’t **ever** touch me again. You don’t get to say my name, you will never hear me _speak_ after this. Whatever the hell you were planning in bringing me here, you are a _twisted_ fucking human being and you should go destroy someone else’s life. We’re done here.”

               Joohyun didn’t wait for Junmyeon to acknowledge her. As quickly as she had gotten that job, she was quickly going to resign from her position and never return to this building. She’d have to explain to Seungwan why she walked out on the first day, but after years of doing things by herself, she knew to put herself first and wouldn’t have minded sinking back into seclusion.

               Junmyeon watched dumbfoundedly as Joohyun down the hallway and around the corner, followed moments later by the sound of the elevator ding. His eyes were void of life, and he lowered his gaze to the floor, eyes catching onto the bright pink of a discarded umbrella.

* * *

               Joohyun had never run as fast as she did leaving that building, throwing all caution to the wind and making her way past that lobby, into the pouring rain with no sense of care for her own wellbeing. She just needed to be as far away from that place, from Junmyeon standing in front of his window like he wasn’t the one responsible for ruining her life and taking away everything that ever mattered to her. The pouring rain soaked her clothes and messed up her hair, but it hid the wet streaks across her cheeks and kept her plight from the world. Everything she had worked so hard to accomplish by herself, just to prove to him that she could make it out there on her own, that she wasn’t broken but _better_. Everything was shattered, like a broken vase that was just put back together. She was holding it all in, the jagged shards cutting into her fingers as she ran, but she wasn’t about to let any of the pieces slip out of her hands.

               It was only when entered her apartment again that she collapsed, sinking to the floor right in front of her door and hugging her knees to her chest as she finally let the floodgates open. Her purse dropped next to her shaking body, her phone sliding out of its contents with a screen littered with nothing but missed calls and text messages from Seungwan. The empty corridor reverberated at the sound of her choked sobs, ugly, thrashing noises ripped out of her throat. Her fingers were bleeding and stinging far too much now, and the shards fell to the ground altogether.

               Kim Junmyeon. At one point in her life, she was the sun, and he, the moon. They were the textbook definition of loving, and to be loved. And even if they were young and free, their love still bore fruit: the stars. All it took was one phone call to tell him the outcome of their tryst. But then she sat there in the hospital, with the sky outside her window about as gray as the curtains around her bed, waiting. Waiting. But he never came. And she never saw him ever again.

               Joohyun lied. She always hated being alone. She had never felt as alone as she did in that hospital bed, waiting for him. And for the first time in forever, she was truly alone again.

               

**Author's Note:**

> so this is my first k-pop fanfic pls go easy on me LMAO  
> any comments are truly appreciated and pls look forward to more (bc this was pretty short for a first chapter)  
> anywho, ttyl~


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